B2B social media best practices | B2B social media strategies
Rise of Social Media:
Will
social media site from 2008 be remembered as the real start of business to
business (B2B) social marketing. In a way, that is much more than just
debating whether to start a blog? Can we finally see a change in the way
marketers communicate!
B2B social media strategies:
The
answer to social marketing for B2B seems to revolve around the activity
itself's the real purpose. Both businesspeople are networking to gain personal
benefit or market their product/company brand. A new report has concluded that
staff should be encouraged to use social networking as part of their business
activities. It can boost staff loyalty and morale.
It
would be reasonable to predict that social networking sites like Viadeo, Social
media manager linkedin, Plaxo, Ning, and Ryze will see their membership ranks
soar. In the next few quarters, widespread insecurity drives people to connect
with others to boost their social capital.
Can
the same be said of product and service placements in blogs, podcasts, business
groups in networking sites?. In recent months we have seen a rise in online B2B
business networking sites being offered, especially for small enterprises.
Any
long-run success of business social networks will come down to basics, which
can become a new channel to market or take the cost out of the marketing
equation. If these are achieved, we will see the seed corn driving current
developments turns into some tremendous opportunities.
B2B social media best practices
Large
players like BT are heavily promoting BT Tradespace to gain a foothold in the
online business networking space, somewhere between directory sites like
Yell.com and networking sites for boutique consultancies, dominated by online
entrepreneurs like Thomas Power with the academy. Plus, there are emerging
regional offerings like "Let's Do Business" in the South East and
"Your Business Club" in the North West.
Add
to the mix the popularity of social networking sites for business, such as
Facebook and Bebo. With the explosion in business blogging sites and business
videos loaded on YouTube, you have countless outlets to post entries that
promote your offerings. One example that has become a legend is Blendtec's
Will. It blends on YouTube to catapulted its high-quality blenders from
obscurity to leading brand awareness in the US.
Mintel's
study of 2,000 Britons is based on extensive research into social networking
and viral marketing. They claim, "the emergence of online social
networking is transforming the way we communicate and how we spend our leisure
time, online and offline." The watchers are now looking to see if the
research can replicate this business world's success.
The
report focuses on viral content and talks quite extensively about email
marketing. We are seeing the convergence of several ways of sharing content via
social and pseudo-social networks. Be it some key marketing message, product
placements, professional networking, industry watch, harmful product or company
reaction, and all are now in the "marketing mix."
We
have seen examples of "good old" word of mouth marketing on social
business media sites like Twitter with London Theatre, and SEOmoz having a
dramatic effect. However, if not handled professionally, the outcomes could
cause such an immediate impact that it makes Gerald Ratner's famous comments
look snail-paced!
The
future of social marketing in this social media era is not about the next
emerging happening. I feel it did arrive in 2008, but now about understanding
how it's reinventing how we all need to communicate?
Peter
Motley is passionate about marketing and delivering value for his clients'
money. Peter sees real business to business marketing as turning the business
plan into an achievable marketing strategy and ensuring its delivery. You can
contact Peter at Marketing Crew.
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